Vertical uplift capacity of a group of shallow circular plate anchors in sand

ABSTRACT

The uplift capacity of a group of circular plate anchors buried horizontally in sand along a line has been determined. The uplift capacity of an interfering anchor is presented in terms of nondimensional uplift factors, F_γi and F_qi, due to components of soil unit weight and surcharge pressure acting on the ground surface, respectively. Theoretical solutions have been developed by applying the upper bound theorem of limit analysis based on a simple rigid wedge collapse mechanism. In the case of two and infinite number of anchors, closed-form solutions have been developed for computing the factor F_qi, whereas the factor F_γi is determined using a semianalytical approach. As expected, the interference of the anchors leads to a continuous reduction in the uplift resistance with a decrease in the spacing between the anchors, and the uplift resistance decreases with the increasing number of anchors at a given spacing. The results compare reasonably well with the available theoretical and experimental data from the literature.